Connecting boxes including switching means for illuminating devices



United States Patent [72] Inventor Heinz Seelbach Kierspe, Germany {21] Appl. No. 850,793 [22] Filed Aug. 18, 1969 [45] Patented Dec. 29, 1970 [73] Assignee Reininghaus & Co.

Ludenscheid, Germany a corporation of Germany [32] Priority Aug. 20, 1968 [3 3 Germany [31 1 No. 1,764,854

[54] CONNECTING BOXES INCLUDING SWITCHING MEANS FOR ILLUMINATING DEVICES 4 Claims, 6 Drawing Figs.

[52] 11.8. CI. 200/51, 3 39/75 [51] Int. Cl H01r 13/70 [50] Field of Search 200/51; 339/21, 75, 215, 22, 22b, 22T, 23, 75ind digests [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,295,093 12/1966 Neumann et ai ZOO/51X 3,503,032 3/l970 Routh et al. 339/215X Primary Examiner-H. 0. Jones Assistant Examiner-M. Ginsburg Attorney-Ernest G. Montague ABSTRACT: A lighting device, which comprises a hollow carrying rail to be secured to at or adjacent to a securing face and the carrying rail is open towards one side. Conducting rails are received in the carrying rail and are accessible in the hollow space of the latter from the inside. A connection carries a lighting fixture and has an upper, setoff head part, penetrating the hollow space of the carrying rail, as well as being equipped with a plurality of spring tongues. The said spring tongues emerge laterally from the setoff serving partly as holding tongues and at least as two contact tongues and are transferrabie selectively into an engaging or inoperative position by means of switching cams of a cam roller, which is switchable by means of a switching knob sitting on the outside on the connection box. Transmission members are provided between the switching cams of the cam roller and the spring tongues, the transmission members have outer faces remote from the switching cams, and the spring tongues are secured over the greater part of their length, with the exception of their engaging end parts, to the outer faces of the transmission members.

PATENTEU UEBZS 19m SHEET 1 0F 5 INVENTOR AMA C/a4.

PATENTEDnmsmm SHEEI 2 OF 5 INVENTOR 'kc m {we a WK. Q QMW W PATENTED [1EE29 I976 FIGA PATENTEU DEC29 I970 SHEET 0F 5 INVENTOR CONNECTING BOXES INCLUDING SWITCHING MEANS FOR ILLUMINATING DEVICES The present invention relates to a lighting device with a hollow carrying rail to be secured at mat a distance of a securing face, which carrying rail is open towards one side and receives in its hollow space conducting rails accessible from the inside and is equipped with a terminal box carrying a lighting device. The terminal box has an upper, setoff head part which connects in the hollow space of the carrying rail and is equipped with a plurality of spring tongues, which emerging laterally from the setoff head part, serve partly as holding tongues and at least in doubles as contact tonguesrThe spring tongues are transformable by means of switching cams of a cam roller selectively into an engagement or an inoperative position, the cam roller being switchable by means of aswitching knob sitting on the connection or terminal box.

Such lighting device is known. In this previously-known lighting device, the spring tongues, serving as holding tongues and contact tongues within the connection box extend freely over the entire length. They are merely secured at one end, where the contact tongues have terminal clamps. The switching cams of the cam roller engage at about the center of the spn'ng tongues at their back. The spring tongues are thus aent through along the greater part of their length by the switching cams of the cam roller, in order to enter the engaging position. Now the springs have, however, the disadvantageous characteristic, they they weaken, after they did stand for a longer time period under constant tension. This weakening is still favored, if heat occurs, which is the case in lighting devices of the type disclosed here. It is, therefore. to

be considered, that the spring tongues cannot be removed any more from the grooves, receiving the conduit rails in any ordinary manner.

It is one object of the present invention to provide a lighting device which avoids the drawbacks of the known structures.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a lighting device in which the spring tongues can be transformed again into their inoperative position even'f after long use thereof.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a lighting device, wherein between the switching cams of the cam roller and the spring tongues stiff or rigid transmission members are disposed therebetween, on the outer faces of which pointing away from the switching cams are secured the spring tongues over the greater part of their length, however, with the exception of their engaging end parts.

Due to the fact, that the spring tongues and in particular the holding tongues, as well as the contact tongues sit rigidly with a greater part of their length on a stiff transmission member, the actual spring effect occurs now only at the engagement end parts, which remain free of any support. On the entire remaining length. however, the spring tongues are rigidly supported. This has the decisive advantage, that even after long use of the lighting device by rotation of the cam roller into the inoperative position, all spring tongues are forcibly transmitted into theirinoperative position. Becausethe spring tongues are secured to rigid transmission members, they can be charged without difficulty as to pressure as well as to pull. A danger, that spring tongues are retained, upon such rotation of the cam roller, that the holding tongues and contact tongues are transferred into their inoperative position, thus does not exist any more.

It is of advantage, if the transmission member is a closed frame with a window opening, in which the switching cam'of the cam roller is guided as a sliding block. whereby the frame is movable in the direction towards the'conducting rails and away from the latter. An embodiment is preferred thereby, in which the frame is mounted for a swinging movement on an axle on a section thereof pointing away from the engagement end parts of the spring tongues. I 7

In this manner, the springtongues can be reliably moved upon rotation of the cam rolleir by means of the switch knob.

With these and other objects in view'which will become apparent in the following detailed description, the present invention, which is shown by example only, will be clearly understood in connection with the accompanying drawings. in

e which:

FIG. 1 is an end elevation of a lighting device with a part section through a carrying 'rail;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation of a connection box;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the connection box disclosed in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4, FIG. 5, and FIG. 6 are elevations partly in section of the. individual switch-cam-spring tongues of the connection box in a taken-apart state in different working positions of the cam roller.

Referring now to the drawings, the lighting device comprises three' main parts, namely a carrying rail A, a connection box B and a lighting device C carried by the connection box B, which lighting device C is disclosed in the embodiment as a projector.

The supporting rail A, which can be best determined in FIG. 1, comprises a web part of substantially H-shaped cross section. It is secured by means of a securing sleeve 10 and a securing screw 11 just below a room ceiling 12, whereby the securing sleeve 10 enters ari undercut hollow space of the sup-. porting rail A. The free web part receives in its inner hollow space accessible from below through a passing longitudinal slot an insulating material strip 13, which has totally three longitudinal grooves. Two of these longitudinal grooves are pointing towards each other and to a vertical longitudinal center plane of the supporting rail A and receive aconduit rail 14 each. These conduit rails 14 extend over the total length of the supporting rail A and are connected to the electric network, thus carry electric current. The third conduit-rail 15 disposed close to the supporting rail cover serves as a ground.

Next to the edges of the downwardly directed opening of the longitudinal slot, the supporting rail has on both sides of a vertical center plane two grooves 16, which point towards each other.

Each connection box B (FIGS. 2 and 3) has a generally parallelepipedon-shaped basic configuration, is, however, at its upper head end 17 cooperating with the carrying rail A as to its width stepwise set off and has, thus, in the head part 17 a narrower width than that of the main part. In the plane head end wall of the head part 17 of the connection box B is disposed an opening, through which a flat grounding pin 18 projects, which is spring biased, and aims by means of the charging spring 19 to continuously towards the outside from the cover of the head part I7. This grounding pin 18 cooperates. with the grounding conduit 15 within the carrying rail A.

At the sidewalls of the head part 17 of the connecting box are provided slots through which angularly bent end parts of, by example, totally four tongues 20, 21, 22 and 23 can move from the inside towards the outside. The two outer tongues 20 and 21 serve as holding tongues. They are arranged close to at least one end face of the connecting box B and arranged diagonally, in order to dispose the holding points as much as possible apart. A holding tongueZl is, thus disposed on one side (FIG. 3 in the front to the right), and the second holding tongue 20 from the rear on the left side. The holding tongues 20 and 21, as well as the contact tongues 22 and 23, have angularly bent end parts.

As can be ascertained from FIG. 1, the contact tongues 22 and 23 are equipped at their lower ends with a terminal clamp 24 each. Connecting conduits 25 are secured thereto, which are guided from the bottom of the connecting box B through to a socket 26 of the actual lighting device C.

In FIGS. 46, the individual spring tongues 20, 21, 22 and 23 four switching cams 2 7, 28, 29 and 30 and the grounding pin 18 are shown torn apart and turned each for It is to be understood, that the shaft 31 disclosed in the center as small circles projects in longitudinal direction through the connecting box 13, as can be ascertained from FIG. 2. There, it can be recognized that between the terminal clamps 24 of the contact tongues 22 and 23 and the securing points of the holding ton gues 20 and 21 on the housing of the connecting box B and the free angularly bent end parts, all four spring tongues and a cam roller 31 are mounted, which by means of a switching knob 32 provided on the outside of the housing of the connecting box B can be rotated. As, for instance, can be ascertained from FIG. 4', the switching roller 31, projecting horizontally in longitudinal direction of the connection box B, carries the four switching earns 27, 28, 29 and 30, which have the configuration of eccentrically mounted circular discs.

Around these switching cams 27, 28, 29 and 31) are disposed framelike transmission members 33, which have a window opening 34, the upright and oppositely disposed inner wall faces of which are arranged parallel towards each other, whereby the open width of the window opening 34 corresponds with the diameter of the switching cams 27, 28, 29 and 30.

The framelike transmission members 33 are mounted on their lower end parts on a joint axle 35 for a swinging movement. On the left and right, respectively, outer faces of the frames serving as rigid transmission member 33, are as can be recognized from FIG. 4, holding tongues 20 and 21 and contact tongues 22 and 23 secured such, that these spring tongues 20, 21 22 and 23 are secured along the main part of their length on the outside of the frame 33, however, with the exception of their engagement end parts.

FIG. 4 gives the position of the cam roller 31 in the noneffective position of the holding tongues 20 and 21 and the contact tongues 22 and 23. One recognizes at first to the right in FIG. 4, that the grounding pin 18 in this position engages already the grounding conduit of the carrying rail A. In this manner, a protection grounding of the connection box B and of the lighting'device C brought about from the moment of the insertion of the head part 17 of a connection box B into the supporting rail A. This position does not change, because the grounding pin 18 is not controlled by switching cams, rather merely by spring tension against the grounding conduit 15 of the supporting rail A.

It is recognizable in FIG. 4 that the two holding tongues 20 and 21 engage on the first and on the fourth switching earns 27 and 30 such, they they do not project relative to the sidewalls of the head part 17 of the connection box 8. The same applies also for the two contact tongues 22 and 23 shown in the second and the third'position. This is thus the introduction position, in which the connection box 13 can be inserted without any difficulty into the carrying rail A.

Referring now to FIG. 5, the cam roller 31 has been turned for one switching step, that means, for a predetermined angle. Due to the fact that the eccentric discs vary their position and switching cams 27, 28, 29 and 30 within the Window opening 34 of the rigid transmission frame 33, the two holding tongues 20 and 21 enter the grooves 16 coordinated thereto of the supporting rail A, while the contact tongues 22 and 23 have been moved forward in the direction to the conduction rails 14 of the carrying rail A, but do not enter the latter. In this position, the cam roller 31, in accordance with FIG. 5, the connection box B is already suspended on the carrying rail A. One can,

however, displace the connection box B still within the carrying rail A. Also the current feed is not brought about yet.

Only when the cam roller 31 with the switching cams 27- -30 switches into the end position, as shown in FIG. 6, reach also the contact tongues 22 and 23 from inside toward the conduction rails 14 of the carrying rail A. simultaneously, the I holding tongues 20 and 21 can be more rigidly pressed by corresponding formation of the switching cams 27 and 30.

As can be ascertained from FIGS. 4, 5, and 6 that the switching cams 27 and 31) ofthe cam roller 31 are no more effective as before directly on the holding tongues 20 and 21 and the contact tongues 22 and 23, respectively, rather on all four switching cams 27-30 of the cam roller 31 rigid transmission member 33 in frame-shape are interposed. On these rigid transmission members 33 are secured the holding tongues 20 and 21, as well as the contact tongues 22 and 23 over the greater part of their length, for instance. by screwing on. Only the engagement end parts of the holding tongues 20 and 21 and ofthe contact 'tongues 22 and 23 ar not supported. in order to be able to press the spring tongues2023 with a certain resting resiliency to the grooves" 16 of the carrying ra ilA and the conduit rails M, respectively. I g

It is apparent that the holding tongues 20 and 21 the contact tongues 22 and 23 are forcibly joined during the transfer from the inoperativep'gsition according to FIG. 4 into the end position according toFIG. 6, as well as vice versa, over a greater part of its length by the transmission members 33. The rigid connection present along the greater part of the length of the spring tongues 2023 between the spring tongues 20-23 and the transmission'member 33 suffices with safety, in order to transfer also after longer use ofthelighting device the holding tongues 20 and 21 and the contact tongues 22 and 23 from the engagement position into the. ineffective position.

While I have disclosed one embodiment of the present invention, it is to be understood that thisembodiment is given by example only and not in a limiting sense.

Iclaim:

l.Alighting device comprising v a a hollow carrying rail tobe secured to at or adjacent to a securing face;

said carrying rail being open towards one side;

conducting rails received in said carrying rail and accessible in the hollow space of the latter from the inside;

a connection box carrying a lighting fixture and having an upper, setoff head part, penetrating the hollow space of said carrying rail, as well as being equipped with a plurality of spring tongues;

said spring tongues emerging laterally from said setoff head part and serving partly as holding tongues and at least as.

two contact tongues;

switching means including a cam roller having switchingcams mounted in said box and including a switching knob on the outside of said box;

said switching means also including transmission members between said switching cams of said cam roller and said spring tongues;

said transmission members having outerfaces remote from said switching cams;

said switching means being operable to transfer said contact tongues into engagement with said conducting rails and said holding tongues into engagement with said carryin rail;

said spring tongues being secured over the greater part of said closed frame is movable in a direction towards and away from said conducting rails. 3. The lighting device, as set forth in claim 2, wherein: said switching cams comprise circular discs mounted eccentrically on said cam roller;

said window opening in said frame has inner wall faces extending substantially parallel to said spring tongues; and the open width of said window opening corresponds with the diameter of said switching cams. 4. The lighting device, as set forth in claim 1, which includes:

an axle; and

said frame is mounted for a swinging movement on said axle on its section remote from said engaging end parts of spring tongues. 

